Aikido Bridge Friendship Seminar Day 2

This morning the first guest instructor was Greg O'Connor Sensei from New Jersey.
In his one hour class we worked on a couple of new styles of katatetori kokyunages, one where
after doing a tenkan, nage keeps both hands together, more like dribbling a basketball.

Then second 1 and 1/2 hour class was taught by Doran Sensei. We worked on kosadori kokyunage,
katatetori ikkyo, katatetori sankyo, and katatetori shinoage. Doran Sensei said something a
number of interesting things, one that I remember is that nage should always try to take
his partner's balance whenever possible. Often in our training, we don't fully feel all of the
opportunities to take uke's balance and that can cause problems with nage.

There was a nice two and a half hour break for lunch. I ate a couple of tacos and then took a twenty minute nap. When I woke up, I was a lot more sore than when I fell asleep.

The third class was taught by Ikeda Sensei. During his class, he emphasized establishing unity with uke before preforming the technique. If you don't establish a connection with uke it becomes a struggle with pure power and usually the stronger person will dominate. Ikeda Sensei said that one reason we study a martial art is overcome the advantage of a dominate strength is to use technique to overcome these advantages. Ikeda Sensei had us work on establishing a union or connection with uke in our techniques. This is harder than it sounds because it is my natural inclination to use my muscle instead of moving from your center after connecting with uke.

The forth class was taught by Tissier Sensei. He went through ikkyo, nikkyo, sankyo, and gokyu, with a different focus than the other instructors for the day. When teaching Aikido, we break down the technique in discrete steps, with each step a major point. Tissier Sensei we need to master each step but that the challenge become one of concentration when transitioning between each step. We become better when we are able to transition between each step.

The final class of the day was taught by Choate Sensei. The class was more of extending ki and about opening up the joints of both uke and nage. I like how Choate Sensei extended his himself and was able to restrain uke through just the use of a finger.

All told, today was a great first full day of Aikido.